NEWS

At border between Haiti & Dominican Republic

Dajabón, Dominican Republic. People from around the world will come together under the banner of Border of Lights on September 28, 2017 to peacefully commemorate the 80th anniversary of the 1937 Massacre, also known as el Corte (The Cut), or El Desalojo (the Eviction), and even the Parsley Massacre. In 1937, the Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, ordered the slaughter of as many as 15,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent in an ethnic cleansing on the Dominican-Haitian border. Border of Lights invites artists, activists, teachers, students, parents, and clergy to gather together to honor a tragedy long forgotten in the annals of 20th century genocidal and ethnic cleansing history by participating in a two-day community project in the border towns of Dajabón and Ouanaminthe.

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives.

This timely and unique crowd-sourced book of immigration stories — each told in six words — captures hundreds of memoirs on the experience from across America, spanning cultures and generations, to paint a powerful portrait of who we are as a country, and where we came from. "The immigration experience is a part of all of our personal history," says Six-Word Memoir creator Larry Smith. "From the stories of recent refugees to those who have been in America for generations, the ease and simplicity of sharing six-word stories offers a lens on timely issues of immigration and identity."

"We are a small state with a history of making a large impact. We banned billboards and went to great lengths to protect our natural resources, as well as our natural beauty. We'll be damned if we're going to let a man who dyes his hair, cheats workers and has his products made in China dictate to us how life should be. Life in Vermont is already great. A man who lies as easily as the average Vermonter catches fish is not someone we're going to spend much time listening to."

The 134-page paperback features 20 collaborators ranging from Weybridge writer Julia Alvarez and Brookfield artist Ed Koren to former Gov. Madeleine Kunin and Vermont Life editor emeritus Tom Slayton. Visit facebook.com/TheFullVermonty for more about the book.

We are basing our campaign on one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence: the street harassment that women around the world face every day. Our rallying cry will be #nosoytumamacita and we will encourage girls and women around the world to post photos of themselves affirming their identities.

For example, a woman could create a sign that says "I am a doctor and save lives. #nosoytumamacita". Men are welcome to join in on the campaign too, and can post affirming messages such as "I don't support violence against women #nosoytumamacita" or "She is more than a statistic #nosoytumamacita".

. . . And tell the girls and boys worried about walls and bullies the stories. Tell them there are Mariposas everywhere, including inside them, seemingly fragile, hiding in cocoons, developing wings that can carry them across continents, borders, and over the intolerance and violence that the worst among us can stir up. . . <read more>

Some books you will yourself to write, some have their own wills and come through you, insisting on being written.

A few years ago, I began losing many of the people I love. One of the difficult things about coming from a culture where your extended familia is considered your "nuclear" family is that you don't just lose a set of parents, a couple of aunts and uncles, but dozens upon dozens of tías, tíos, madrinas, padrinos, abuelitas, abuelitos. A whole flank of familia is suddenly gone...

At border between Haiti & Dominican Republic

Border of Lights will be on the border towns of Dajabón, DR and Ouanaminthe, HT from October 7-9, 2016. This is our fifth year, gathering at the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to commemorate the massacre of 1937, and also to promote peace and collaboration between two countries who have been historically in conflict. There will be a Twitter Chat (@border_oflights) and Facebook Q + A and Online Vigil.

This is great project/book about bold women who have made a difference. I have a piece in there about Mirabal Sisters called "The Butterfly Effect: the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic." The book is meant to inspire women/girls as well as men/boys.

I was invited to address the annual gathering of the American Booksellers Association Children's Institute, which took place in Orlando, Florida, only eleven days after the horrific shootings of forty-nine mostly young people -- not as young as the twenty children shot down in Sandy Hook (along with six adults) in December 2012, but many of them young people on the brink of their adult lives. I wanted to share my thoughts on how we go on When The Worst Happens.

"The government says it is doing all it can, but the faces and stories that Amy Martin captures say it is not enough. We must do more to help by encouraging Dominican and Haitian authorities to regularize the status of all their citizens and by providing humanitarian assistance to those who find themselves destitute, stateless and bereft of hope.

"The world could use an island of peace, harmony and prosperity anywhere right now. Close to home might be a place to start."

This year, November 25th falls the day before Thanksgiving in the United States. A day of families and friends and communities gathering together to share the harvest, a day of giving thanks. And so I give thanks for Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and Dedé Mirabal. . . <read more>

Wide ranging, engaging, with a national focus but an international scope, CLICK! is an astonishing resource for educators, historians, all of us who have come of age in feminism, and are embedded in the history and sometimes cannot see the forest because of the surrounding trees. A website archive -- the first of its kind that I know of! It's a site I will keep visiting and revisiting, sending my students, colleagues, friends to it, availing myself of the videos, photos, text, and testimony which makes history come alive in an innovative, transformative, integrated way.

Even as a feminist, after visiting Click! I've understood feminism as never before!

At border between Haiti & Dominican Republic

We will again be on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic for our annual BORDER OF LIGHTS gathering, Oct 1-4, 2015. Besides our vigil at the border towns of Dajabón and Ouanaminthe, we will also undertake a number of projects and educational venues with both communities, including stocking the kitchen at the orphanage in Ouanaminthe, painting the firehouse in Dajabón, holding an educational/informational forum/dialogue in the central park, a roundup town meeting with organizations and activists to serve as our closing session... <read message>

MAURICIA ALVAREZ -- "Maury"
April 13, 1949-February 27, 2015

Our beloved Maury, mother, sister, friend, passed away on February 27, 2015, in her home in Conway, Massachusetts. Noble-hearted, generous to a fault, larger than life, she cast her bread upon the waters and kept us all in the steady supply of her affection, her attention, her gifts, her warmth, her zany humor, and her sense of fun. For many years she worked in community health, including spearheading programs in Latino mental health in Boston, where she spent most of her professional life. She taught at Harvard Medical School and was a senior staff psychologist at Cambridge Hospital, specializing in services for immigrants and refugees. After her parents' return to their native Dominican Republic, she moved there to provide loving, devoted care to them in their last years. Friendship and abounding compassion were always her guiding stars -- she never held back when a friend needed her, and when there was someone in need, they instantly found a friend in Maury. Tellingly, the subject of her doctorate dissertation was in "The Constructing of Friendship in Adulthood." But Maury needed no institution to teach her this deep-seated gift in her nature or degree to certify she was a genuine friend. We ask in lieu of flowers or donations to a specific cause -- and she had many she championed -- that those who want to preserve her legacy cast their bread upon the waters, wherever they find themselves. That will be her true legacy to those who mourn her and admire her.

My poem "On Sunday" won the PSA poetry lyric award for 2015. I wasn't able to be at the ceremony because I was en route to DR with my granddaughters (13 and 10) to volunteer for a week at Mariposa DR Foundation -- a way to begin early teaching them about service and also about having fun, which they don't need lessons on, but grandma might.

New Books

My friend and colleague at Middlebury College Larry Yarbrough asked five writers to look at the Passion story in the four gospels. I "got" the gospel of Mark, the starkest, leanest of the bunch. At first I wanted Luke or Matthew because I'd long heard they were the ones with many details, beloved by writers, but I was glad because this stark and lonesome narrative appealed to me as I wrote it, grieving over the loss of my parents -- first to Alzheimer's, then to death. Passion: Contemporary Writers on the Story of Calvary was published in February 2015.

There will be a performance in NYC for those who can attend of "Eddie's Perejil", a performance piece by one of our heart's core BOLers, Edward Paulino, about the massacre. Photos by Tony Savino of past BOL gatherings will be shown and a discussion of issues brought forth in the performance. Most NY BOLers will be there. I, unfortunately, will be in Santa Fe at at retreat, but Bill and I are part of the Producer's Circle, and we've been asked to put the word out so that others can join that circle. This is apart from BOL Kickstarter, a separate/added way to support the work we are doing. To purchase your tickets or to make a donation please visit:
http://bit.ly/eddiesperejil.

On July 28th, 2014, I was at the White House to receive the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. I was thrilled, but overwhelmed with big feelings. As I said to any number of people: by this stage in life, we know that we don't get to be who we are without the investments and contributions of so many people, hundreds of "invisible hands," helping us along the way.Read on in my ñapa.

We're doing Border of Lights again, October 4-6, 2013 in Dajabón, DR, and Quanaminthe, Haiti. We also created a successful Kickstarter project. This year, because of increased tensions between the two countries, we have not been able to procure the permits to gather at the border and have been discouraged from any large group gathering. We will still be holding a service and a small group of us will stand at the border in solidarity. Instead we are asking supporters to join us for an online vigil, October 5, Saturday, from 8-10 pm (EST). This is a way that those who cannot be physically on the ground with us can "join" us online. We hope the vigil goes viral and global, as this will send a powerful message to both countries that there is a community out there supporting change, peace, harmony between both countries.www.borderoflights.orgwww.facebook.com/BorderofLightstwitter.com/@border_oflights

Archive Acquired by Ransom Center

My "papers" -- yes, all those boxes of stuff Packrat Alvarez could not bear to throw away -- have found a home at the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin. I'll be going there in the spring of 2014 to give the "christening" reading!

Alvarez's extensive archive consists of manuscripts, correspondence, journals and professional files. The manuscripts span her writing career and include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays and unpublished works, often in multiple drafts. Alvarez regularly sent drafts of her work to friends and colleagues, and these copies usually bear handwritten comments from the reader alongside Alvarez's revisions.

Alvarez's correspondence includes poems and letters from fellow writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Edwidge Danticat, Dana Gioia and Marilyn Hacker.

"Alvarez's archive will provide students and scholars access to her experience-driven explorations of race, family, culture and society," said Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley. "As one of the key figures in the rise of Caribbean and Latino writing over the past three decades, she writes poignantly and authentically about topics that are central to current cultural debates, from immigration to bicultural identity."

The Alvarez materials will be accessible once processed and cataloged. High-resolution press images are available.

With a bright and beautiful new red cover, A Wedding in Haiti is now out in paperback! Not only that, but the official publication date for the Spanish edition Una boda en Haití is June 5, 2013 (but I hear it is available for preorder now). Find out more about my latest book:

"I am a virgin blogger! I've never done a blog-blog before. I hesitate because, I actually have blogged before, but not intentionally, and what I was doing was not called by that name...

"But now I am an official blogger for five days at Powell's. Every day you will get a fresh blog entry, promise. And since I'm on tour with my new nonfiction book, A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship, I thought I'd share a few of the little back stories that went into writing this book..."

On November 4, 2011, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and the Vermont Arts Council presented me with the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts at the Vermont Arts Gala in Montpelier. Writing for me is all about the work. The farmer next door has his sheep, and I do my writing. I've never liked the segregation of "being an artist." I'd rather have my work fit into the weave of the community. This is just my job. When something like this happens, I'm always surprised. . . and grateful!

Live Skype Session

Join me for an Internet-assisted live discussion facilitated by Hayward City Council member Francisco Zermeño. The event will take place at the Hayward Public Library in Hayward, California on May 10, 2011 at 1 pm. More info at SFGate.com.

Eveoke opened its 2010/2011 season with Las Mariposas, an original dance theatre production inspired by my novel In the Time of the Butterflies. In December 2011, it was my great pleasure to see the dance performance again in the Dominican Republic, along with girls from Mariposa DR Foundation, a nonprofit that rescues young girls and educates them to ensure that they will not become victims of poverty or violence.

In October 2009, I went to D.C. to receive the 2009 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. The award ceremony was part of the annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference held at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD. (the Awards Ceremony is now on YouTube for all to enjoy). Awful rainy, chilly weather but a warm reception and gracious hosts and lively participants. True, when the moment came and I read the roster of earlier recipients (Grace Paley, John Updike, Norman Mailer, William Styron, Jane Smiley, among others) I felt a little of what President Obama must have felt upon hearing he won the Nobel Peace Prize. But neither one of us is giving our respective honors back! We'll both just have to work harder to make sure we deserve to be in the company of the Great Ones who have gone before us. One of the best parts of the award was to come home to my Middlebury College community and feel their pride and enthusiasm for the achievement. The college has been a long time supporter of my work, beginning with my undergraduate years when I first embraced my calling as a writer. It was here where I learned my craft, and years later, came back to teach it to a new generation of students. Read more about the award on the Middlebury College website: www.middlebury.edu.

On Sunday, October 4th, I led the CROP Walk in my home town. If you think CROP Walk is a harvest festival, then you're in good company. That's what I used to think, too. And actually it is a harvest festival in which we walk in solidarity with those who are not getting any part of the harvest of the world's goods. Although you are reading this note after the walk, you can still go online and pledge your support for CROP.

I was at the 2009 National Book Festival in D.C. on September 26, 2009. I had said that the fall was closed to more traveling, but when I got invited to the first National Book Festival hosted by our new president and his wife, I couldn't resist. I admit I was invited once before, during the troubling tenure of our former prez, and I just couldn't make myself go drink his champagne and eat his finger food and shake the hand of a leader whose administration was steeped in lies. Looking back, I think I made a mistake. It's precisely when an oppressive regime is in place that you need Scheherazades in the sultan's court. I missed my chance, but I was chastened and also honored to go down to Washington to celebrate a president who understands and commands the power of words and to join fellow poets and storytellers as we slowly, yes slowly, find our way through the ruins and tumbling structures, providing what we can provide, string through this labyrinth. At the gala opening on Friday, I was selected to give the opening welcome along with four other writers: John Grisham, Judy Blume, David Baldacci, and Annette Gordon-Reed. Hands down, I was the most nervous, and it didn't help that I was the last one to speak. President Obama and Michelle were slated to be there, but sent regrets at the last moment as they were delayed at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. I was actually relieved, though all my Obama-fan relatives who wanted personalized autographs from the president and Michelle were terribly disappointed. You can watch my speech on YouTube thanks to Book TV.

RETURN TO SENDER, a novel, ages ten and up (and up!), was published by Knopf Books for Children in January 2009. The seed for the novel came when I got involved translating at local schools for the children of Mexican migrant workers who have now made their way up to Vermont. (And boosted our compromised Latino population!) These workers are now doing the milking on many of our dairy farms. Without them, many of our small farmers could not survive, as they, too, are being squeezed by the high cost of farming and a dearth of workers.

Seeing how baffled the Mexican children and their classmates were about how to understand this situation that had thrown us all together, I thought: we need a story to understand what is happening to us! The title comes from a dragnet operation that the Department of Homeland Security conducted in 2006, named, Return to Sender. Work places were raided and undocumented workers were seized. Their children were the biggest casualties of this operation -- left behind to be soothed and reassured until they could be finally reunited with their parents.

Sometimes it's just plain fun to take a break from book writing and do short pieces for magazines who ask. Two recent articles are "Weybridge, Vermont: No Frills Here," Smithsonian magazine, November 2008, and "Winning the Hair Wars," MORE, October 2008.

How The García Girls Lost Their Accents, a play by Karen Zacarías, based on my novel, had its world premiere on September 22, 2008, at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland. Blake Robison, the Producing Artistic Director of the theatre, also directed the play, and he did a fabulous job! For one thing: the last scene was played totally in Spanish! I was there for opening night, and afterwards, even monolingual/English-only audience members claimed they understood every word. How could you not? The almost all-Latino cast was sassy, inventive, skilled -- in a word, great! The run is over (September 22 - October 12, 2008) but if the play is revived, go see it. And if you're ever in the D.C. area, go visit the Round House Theatre (www.roundhousetheatre.org). They are a great community and national resource.

On October 4th, 2007, the United Nations dedicated a session to honoring the work of my mother, Julia T. Alvarez. She was unable to attend due to illness, and so she asked me to go and accept the award in her place.

For twenty-three years, my mother served as alternate representative to the UN with the Dominican mission. Hers was a labor of love and public service. Many of her colleagues never knew that she never collected a salary; she felt that she had been one of the lucky few to receive opportunities and hers was a poor country that could well use the salary for other needs. She devoted herself to the Third Committee, which addresses issues involving the vulnerable populations in developing countries, including children, women, and the elderly, who became Mami's particular focus.

It was through her efforts that an International Year of Older Persons (1999) and an ongoing International Day of Older Persons (October 1st) were instituted as well as a declaration of the rights of older persons, known as the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. She was unofficially proclaimed "the United Nations Ambassador on Ageing." Her vision -- before she left the UN in 2002 -- was to start an worldwide Elders for Peace program, in which the elderly around the world would serve as promoters of peace. I hope someone picks up this torch!

At the award session, many of her colleagues and admirers expressed their gratitude for her relentless and visionary work. She helped change the way the United Nations address the ageing issue.

It was a bittersweet moment for me to bring to a close my mother's indefatigable, passionate, and groundbreaking life of public service.

If you'd like to see the webcast of the tribute, please go to:www.un.org/webcast/2007.html
Then scroll down to:4 October 07NGO/DPI: NGO Briefing - "Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of Ageing: Empowering Older Persons" in observance of the International Day of Older Persons (1 October).
[ Programme ]
[Webcast: Archived Video - AM Session English: 1 hour and 54 minutes]

The session recognizing my mother's work begins about 15 minutes into this webcast and lasts for about 30-40 minutes.

The speeches she gave over the years are collected in Speeches for the Ages: An Ambassador Speaks Out on Worldwide Aging. If you'd like to order a copy, you can do so at the XLibris website.

Alta Gracia news

Bill and I have closed the door on this project and the farm is for sale! We hope it will end up in the hands of someone who can continue the original dream of being a place of alta gracia, "high" in the "Dominican Alps," spreading "grace" with however the new owners choose to do so. For details, contact Bill Eichner.